At a restaurant in Calgary late last season, a depressed Jose Theodore ran into former goalie-turned-TV analyst Kelly Hrudey, who dished out some advice along with his plate of pasta: Hang in there, don’t give up on yourself, it happened to me, too.

Hrudey worked his way out of a career funk and nearly won a Stanley Cup with the Los Angeles Kings in 1993, and while the NHL doesn’t have a comeback player of the year award, Theodore on Monday night continued to show he would be a top candidate if there were.

Theodore made 23 saves for his third shutout of the season, a 2-0 Avalanche victory over the Calgary Flames at the Pepsi Center. Theodore’s effort gave the Avs a critical win in their fight to make the playoffs, and came one game after he was yanked in the first period Saturday. It also ended a four-game team losing streak.

“I never doubted I would be able to bounce back,” Theodore said. “I was seeing the puck well. I wasn’t screened. We didn’t allow odd-man rushes.”

Well, not many. One of Theodore’s best stops came with Colorado on a 5-on-3 power-play advantage when Craig Conroy came in alone down the right side for a good scoring chance. That was probably the Avs’ worst minute of the game, but their heavily criticized power play did get one goal, at least, and it was the game-winner.

Former Flames defenseman Jordan Leopold scored at 6:36 of the second period, following up a fast-moving sequence in which Peter Forsberg and Wojtek Wolski got their sticks on the puck before a juicy rebound came into the slot for Leopold.

That was all Theodore would need, but it wasn’t always easy. The Avs put the Flames on the power play twice in the third and had a couple of great chances — including an Alex Tanguay wrister after a great pass by Dion Phaneuf — but Theodore trapped the shot near his shoulder.

“I think we regrouped as a team. We played a simple game, but a game we needed to play,” Theodore said.

The Avs didn’t do a whole lot offensively in the third period, playing a get-it-out, dump-it-in-and-change style. But they got an insurance goal anyway, a Milan Hejduk tap-in by the side of the net on Miikka Kiprusoff — who mysteriously took off to the bench and out of the game after the goal. The Flames thought there should have been icing called prior to the goal, and Kiprusoff said he wanted to discuss the issue further, but from the bench.

The Avs played it even safer after that, and weathered a last-minute power-play for the Flames — a 6-on-4 with the extra attacker.

“I thought it was a real business-like game,” Avs coach Joel Quenneville said. “I thought, checking-wise, we did a real good job. The defensive game was rock solid, and Jose was excellent in the net as well. He made some stops at critical times.”

Forsberg returned after missing two more games, and Quenneville kept his playing time down to 14:59. There was no report of any new injury for the skillful Swede.

Avs Recap

Three stars

1. Jose Theodore.

He wasn’t severely tested but made some tough saves as part of his 23-stop shutout for Colorado.

2. John-Michael Liles.

Avs defenseman broke up a couple of good Calgary chances and had four shots on net.

3. Scott Hannan.

Avs defender and Liles’ partner played nearly 22 solid minutes.

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Ryan Smyth recorded his 600th career point with a third-period assist.

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